9. Membership

Member List

For transparency purposes, we are disclosing each Guild member’s team, the name/identifier, and a link to their work. This set will evolve over time as members leave core development or change teams.

	Team	Name / Link to work
1	0xSplits	donations.0xSplits.eth
2	Akula	Artem Vorotnikov
3	EF DevOps	Parithosh Jayanthi
4	EF DevOps	Rafael Matias
5	EF DevOps	Sam Calder-Mason
6	EF Geth	Gary Rong
7	EF Geth	Guillaume Ballet
8	EF Geth	Jared Wasinger
9	EF Geth	Marius van der Wijden
10	EF Geth	Matt Garnett
11	EF Geth	Peter Szilagyi
12	EF Ipsilon	Andrei Maiboroda
13	EF Ipsilon	Jose Hugo de la cruz Romero
14	EF Ipsilon	Paweł Bylica
15	EF JavaScript	Andrew Day
16	EF JavaScript	Gabriel
17	EF JavaScript	Holger Drewes
18	EF JavaScript	Jochem
19	EF JavaScript	Scotty Poi
20	EF Portal	Jacob Kaufmann
21	EF Portal	Jason Carver
22	EF Portal	Mike Ferris
23	EF Portal	Ognyan Genev
24	EF Portal	Piper Merriam
25	EF Protocol Support	Danny Ryan
26	EF Protocol Support	Tim Beiko
27	EF Protocol Support	Trenton Van Epps
28	EF Research	Aditya Asgaonkar
29	EF Research	Alex Stokes
30	EF Research	Ansgar Dietrichs
31	EF Research	Antonio Sanso
32	EF Research	Carl Beekhuizen
33	EF Research	Dankrad Feist
34	EF Research	Dmitry Khovratovich
35	EF Research	Francesco d’Amato
36	EF Research	George Kadianakis
37	EF Research	Hsiao Wei Wang
38	EF Research	Justin Drake
39	EF Research	Mark Simkin
40	EF Research	Proto
41	EF Research	Zhenfei Zhang
42	EF Robust Incentives Group (RIG)	Anders
43	EF Robust Incentives Group (RIG)	Barnabé Monnot
44	EF Robust Incentives Group (RIG)	Caspar Schwarz-Schilling
45	EF Security	David Theodore
46	EF Security	Fredrik Svantes
47	EF Security	Justin Traglia
48	EF Security	Tyler Holmes
49	EF Security	Yoav Weiss
50	EF Solidity	Daniel Kirchner
51	EF Solidity	Alex Beregszaszi
52	EF Solidity	Harikrishnan Mulackal
53	EF Solidity	Kaan Uzdogan
54	EF Solidity	Kamil Sliwak
55	EF Solidity	Leonardo de Sa Alt
56	EF Testing	Mario Vega
57	Erigon	Alex Sharov
58	Erigon	Andrey Ashikhmin
59	Erigon	Enrique Avila Asapche
60	Erigon	Giulio Rebuffo
61	Erigon	Michelangelo Riccobene
62	Erigon	Tullio Canepa
63	Ethereum Cat Herders	Pooja Ranjan
64	Hyperledger Besu	Ameziane
65	Hyperledger Besu	Daniel Lehrner
66	Hyperledger Besu	Danno Ferrin
67	Hyperledger Besu	Fabio di Fabio
68	Hyperledger Besu	Gary Schulte
69	Hyperledger Besu	Jiri Peinlich
70	Hyperledger Besu	Justin Florentine
71	Hyperledger Besu	Karim Taam
72	Hyperledger Besu	Kevaundray
73	Independent	Afri
74	Independent	Guru
75	Independent	Jim McDonald
76	Independent	Peter Davies
77	Lighthouse	Adrian Manning
78	Lighthouse	Diva Martínez
79	Lighthouse	Mac Ladson
80	Lighthouse	Mark Mackey
81	Lighthouse	Mehdi Zerouali
82	Lighthouse	Michael Sproul
83	Lighthouse	Paul Hauner
84	Lighthouse	Pawan Dhananjay Ravi
85	Lighthouse	Sean Anderson
86	Lodestar	Cayman Nava
87	Lodestar	Dadepo Aderemi
88	Lodestar	dapplion
89	Lodestar	Gajinder Singh
90	Lodestar	Phil Ngo
91	Lodestar	Tuyen Nguyen
92	Nethermind	Daniel Celeda
93	Nethermind	Jorge Mederos
94	Nethermind	Łukasz Rozmej
95	Nethermind	Marcin Sobczak
96	Nethermind	Marek Moraczyński
97	Nethermind	Mateusz Jędrzejewski
98	Nethermind	Tanishq
99	Nethermind	Tomasz Stanzeck
100	Prysmatic	James He
101	Prysmatic	Kasey Kirkham
102	Prysmatic	Nishant Das
103	Prysmatic	potuz
104	Prysmatic	Preston Van Loon
105	Prysmatic	Radosław Kapka
106	Prysmatic	Raul Jordan
107	Prysmatic	Taran Singh
108	Prysmatic	Terence Tsao
109	Quilt	Sam Wilson
110	Status	Dustin Brody
111	Status	Etan Kissling
112	Status	Eugene Kabanov
113	Status	Jacek Sieka
114	Status	Jordan Hrycaj
115	Status	Kim De Mey
116	Status	Konrad Staniec
117	Status	Mamy Ratsimbazafy
118	Status	Zahary Karadzhov
119	Teku	Adrian Sutton
120	Teku	Ben Edgington
121	Teku	Courtney Hunter
122	Teku	Dmitry Shmatko
123	Teku	Enrico Del Fante
124	Teku	Paul Harris
125	Teku	Stefan Bratanov
126	TXRX	Alex Vlasov
127	TXRX	Anton Nashatyrev
128	TXRX	Mikhail Kalinin

Addresses and Weights

For member privacy, the order of weights below does not correspond to the names above. These addresses and weights will change over time as members change from full-time to part-time (or vice-versa), and as members are on/offboarded.

Read more about how weighting is determined in 6.3 Weighting

	Address	Weight (%)
1	0x384BfE9C770313d13c36F365437ba4C86f7EdfA8	0.34
2	0x31e4B877B9033fcc355aF129Fcd387031007BBf0	0.35
3	0xC9187b5C81d63b289811A4fcb9AC7ADb7103639e	0.39
4	0xC5A004f720FB103BD6Eb5de362115eB4986F635E	0.40
5	0xE1d0a84957B652f36769340C38944f1B97cF3e5E	0.40
6	0xab8b3647EF7FF66D2f38ee5eaEf2b158c4eb52A2	0.42
7	0x88cc2a9882Dd3462702e56DF1B438FaC6E203d4A	0.43
8	0x88DCc684da24Fd0aaE0770Dfa2223E7B7476Ad94	0.43
9	0x7777788FB971B414EE0B4422367325151207C836	0.45
10	0x5869C17c8934Ce9f674e88c7d4f8F94DCE193FCB	0.46
11	0x18dEd4aBf3C0B8aE1108788127F33E02988249dA	0.47
12	0x5E5EF2c688E6CE34A1d4b4771780716fE06848FA	0.47
13	0x3ed9D598b2099d99e9e49B1697729027C67926d2	0.50
14	0x530eca5d32c1bf2865327df76f6dbc73dea1af5c	0.50
15	0x66EE965FfC43D985633D04A044B47B7Ba8952EE1	0.50
16	0x9b796F2de75772f1634D78A3AB23A03778D3702a	0.52
17	0xfbbECa029104953F039537a111D07A6aC0549c3c	0.52
18	0x046Fb65722E7b2455012BFEBf6177F1D2e9738D9	0.54
19	0x4Bfa4639Cc1f4554122aBB930Aa897CDAe90d13b	0.54
20	0x8360470F1793C91c953be453fcA52CC63dfCb367	0.54
21	0xd31461D449fBFB88DD8D4E7D8fCcF79389f671E9	0.54
22	0xe8FEE6186cbcF0790644D59f04cC5C085FBA68Bb	0.54
23	0x3d5D2AC4fEcF16bb1651A445d5B17f977A823546	0.55
24	0x8ce466bD577396786C76Da8629314fcce5bE2A5f	0.55
25	0x975D1040E93316917BD67dD32a02e1929F8aF8D3	0.55
26	0xEB8E7c90014565EEd8126110630eFa2d9CD6eBE4	0.55
27	0xEd46bFFd4b8237a9c7E08f55F0B410544f989813	0.55
28	0xf363C519F91E823184061e5BF28263262E2b9B8d	0.55
29	0x00cDD7Fc085c86D000c0D54b3CA6fE83A8a806e5	0.57
30	0x0906Eb682C6d12EdBE5e0A43E60068E1A7F8bea3	0.57
31	0x77b34f5E620e8Cfd1839b245beAADd27ae3A25FB	0.57
32	0x9e7fa612eb6E771B0E918D94A0d524D6666Fa07E	0.57
33	0xc66EFCcB88b3b7BdE6fC476d8cF139DD38075Ad7	0.57
34	0xe2A296b3d3AD4212b6030442e70419ff7B82FEE4	0.57
35	0xFBFd6Fa9F73Ac6A058E01259034C28001BEf8247	0.57
36	0x2D56Cd519540bE541A3261E22e95d6507F5504Ca	0.59
37	0x2fb858991668840ce34F331402E0b3C66db078AF	0.59
38	0x661b81d462D80786c442774F452464A8C627a20E	0.59
39	0x78ac9c2545850bEDbC076EB30ce7A6f0D74b395E	0.59
40	0x980a85ba6c2683e3509752dd3b4eB50165C0e65F	0.59
41	0xB7b93e217dd4E6E700E7362cB234d6258438D3b7	0.59
42	0xf0869c68b91013bf214db68d503c65f9ba44097c	0.59
43	0x153afFb96Fcb60085Ee307996Bdd2df0183A3682	0.61
44	0x3210287ddEe6ece40d17A1F39799239b972A81F2	0.61
45	0xa1506f8DC05b1c22Ba23CBfd4625C68599196E91	0.61
46	0x0760E844e6f368ce73F1eEB917d37Db19375De3B	0.62
47	0x10c8597a5063A1648FfE13f54E996ba9bB3217B5	0.62
48	0x50122A5509F628e901F9c0238F0168833753239b	0.62
49	0xf0443945aD3BE9645382FC2537317dA97FEfF3A9	0.62
50	0xE35b6f8E759Ac242585E2F41Ac29A2baAf4c4e96	0.63
51	0x0B916095200313900104bAcfc288462682C38700	0.64
52	0x5AC41B7E73680a3E77B941fEE0BAD04F59c9bB7d	0.64
53	0x84f678A3e7BA8Fc817c32Ff10884D6FB20976114	0.64
54	0x2bf7b04F143602692bBDc3EcbeA68C2c65278eee	0.66
55	0x5abAdE91eD4B6d11b666280CaCb3E4A32898f39B	0.66
56	0x71c15691e243bE88220957C784053EF0E084440B	0.66
57	0x4d5083dd10f2a46f26f5583c6679f9f8d30ae850	0.67
58	0xCb8DC3beC7B659022aE0d3E9de17322F31e4AA7C	0.67
59	0xC152fd31F285f6c0B3807070280595e7Ea713a7f	0.70
60	0xbC349D1BEeE33c61F0395d1667E70056B4C869B9	0.71
61	0x644177F8D79117c2b9C7596527642B3c2D05888E	0.73
62	0xb721c2e6640D963e99b37B6437ABAF6914A25A5e	0.73
63	0xe611a720778a5f6723d6b4866F84828504657181	0.73
64	0xF8843981e7846945960f53243cA2Fd42a579f719	0.74
65	0x1E811588786841c713E68c37ef0CF60A967543EF	0.76
66	0xa1D76553266fA8Ed3D143794a462aaFAdfC34f74	0.76
67	0x49Aa00072a7BA8a5639C43Fe9F6536820E6F5d57	0.77
68	0x925F5d6cCdB04F56fBa1cdcAd92E4eBb0d421411	0.77
69	0x9915C453cc779109013F1aF0c4639277e8257212	0.78
70	0xFf9977FB117a22254a8eB6c6CE8d3Dd671FA70DC	0.78
71	0xBc11295936Aa79d594139de1B2e12629414F3BDB	0.80
72	0xC6cA7c3427AD6B7a06fbED6D18C394E540E31814	0.80
73	0x46cD90445349e64F895c403c23839e79eb4065e4	0.81
74	0x65a63ceE206bFA6B2a3287479D28c8902B4055E9	0.82
75	0x88dF07c605d13915B8E7D07dc8efD538dC0C5620	0.83
76	0x9d6d3b09F8AC8615805bd82e53B80D956F451CFa	0.83
77	0xE4b99f9580B90d88C3e6dC3E0B853D8D3b0B8B55	0.83
78	0x35bc6a44AcFb79b5A47C1cbe2fD3C560a093a2B1	0.85
79	0x92699d64C65c435D4a60E2ceEaEb931dB8B1cA09	0.85
80	0x80Bb92f389591d353654ac5580baefF7d0d6e778	0.86
81	0xa29576F07eAaD050AeACbc89AC0518B62fe2F88E	0.86
82	0xe05875F287C028901798aC2Dc8C22Ba908b8eF36	0.86
83	0x004f67dAbb603AAA58eD52641CCafF09C559704A	0.88
84	0x799681f9b9d7c55ed59f5a0f235cAb132Cde0a2B	0.88
85	0xb7A593EC62dc447eef23ea0e0B4d5144ac75ABC5	0.88
86	0x1ecaea79D739BC222D6dB2d6bf63F869a329a702	0.89
87	0x10ab73AA48D686b7FD9ec9D50418a14DD23f6631	0.90
88	0xD4a3030b5f5e8DD4860d370C17E8576aE9951a2D	0.90
89	0x6e22a5e30088c8389dc725bbead5f0675334299f	0.92
90	0x24113fFB07189D1e6E169025A424B58C29522972	0.95
91	0x50d5e44700c10873875b4E75C4c9396562D83bE1	0.96
92	0x6B29132ea388a308578c1d3Be068D0e4fc9915a2	0.96
93	0x4B3105E9EC2B6069c1362388D429625a026f43e0	0.97
94	0x873a45B49289b868E81547c6226357E7117e6070	0.97
95	0xd20BebA9eFA30fB34aF93AF5c91C9a4d6854eAC4	0.97
96	0x05618d6EFFe2E522F07B1dB692d47A68bfD6fFEa	1.01
97	0xa87922d0074bCd82Ac82816633CcE68472548955	1.01
98	0x86F34D8b98171281AB8bFe65C7e2718E4f002e35	1.02
99	0x0000006916a87b82333f4245046623b23794c65c	1.03
100	0x7e59Df833869E2997d05e163D6004f3344A052FA	1.03
101	0xf5441a1b900a1D93e4c06CB9c3fDbA39F01469f0	1.03
102	0x1de6938d9f9ebd43D0Cc56f0CeF1657D954c9A94	1.05
103	0xAb96014a7c078f09418Cf899Bf197CadFf023C16	1.05
104	0x00a2d2d22f456125d64beda5a6f37273a13d9de0	1.07
105	0x7c1c1C2DE344dcDd7db65E5D52C5E1Ea862C6139	1.07
106	0xCA186e78bf657d4C5694CA5CA448D3766d2b55Bb	1.07
107	0x3212974a4e53e5238f6ea193b36412db9ad61c26	1.09
108	0x57c5D54F7293CDE1FC129e4159cB07F48752ea61	1.09
109	0x6fFd2248Ab7E80ef51D7Eb4CB60964C830125567	1.09
110	0x376D5C3a16E9d015e8C584bB2d278E25F0ccb27B	1.10
111	0x3eD7bf997b7A91e9e8aB9eE2F7ce983bd37D6392	1.10
112	0x5973D1af5c13168bdC85c6e78309272815995Ffb	1.10
113	0x9F60E4aF6020cc6a791B2d1Ce9902d25A72bA824	1.10
114	0xf71E9C766Cdf169eDFbE2749490943C1DC6b8A55	1.10
115	0x3B16821A5dBBFF86E4a88eA0621EC6be016cd79A	1.12
116	0xF51fc4c6Ab075482b61F5C1d4E72fADaFf8815F3	1.12
117	0x8cbf722adfbc071a12aae158a12a68397578017c	1.13
118	0xe019836A41CB707F79b991f60e241918097aC16e	1.13
119	0x299cB850bD75C07ef89978Bdc52e062Cc4fA0250	1.14
120	0xBFbeaB0896E29d0Db26ad60278d3Ab3C482BB199	1.14
121	0xbB3F2F946E8eE2912830e365cF241293636cb057	1.16
122	0xdF6C53Df56f3992FC44195518A2d8B16306Af9ff	1.16
123	0x797AbA41FD90740a2cA970d6706Af05aDe09335B	1.17
124	0x497f0D190C513f51eAC234628200a5E62271a7A5	1.21
125	0xE9F19B6C72219f9B12C9c367405a90Ac9aFb2241	1.31
126	0x974B9cb3c122561e3bf6234651E0b82B88Fb9015	1.36
127	0x6591e7D655f248f6930195385C36b8D5Af679B8B	1.39
128	0x9Bee5b17Eb847744b6a81Ee935409739F91c722c	1.39

Quotes

We asked members to share why they think the Protocol Guild is important for Ethereum, below are a few of their responses:

Adrian Manning (Lighthouse) - “Lighthouse is the Rust implementation of Ethereum Beacon Chain, a key component in Ethereum’s transition to PoS Although Lighthouse is one of a few major production Eth2 clients, it’s imperative that more than 1 production client is used in the space to avoid the chain collapsing if bugs/vulnerabilities are found in a single client. Protocol Guild supports the teams working on minority clients, which is an important initiative.”

Alex Stokes (EF Research) - “The Protocol Guild is an experiment in public goods funding that aims to align the incentives of core protocol contributors with the continued stewardship of the ecosystem by allowing these contributors to share in the value created by their hard work. This mechanism is important for the future of Ethereum as it ensures continuity of protocol direction, maintenance, and growth among a set of dedicated individuals who deeply care about realizing the collective vision that inspires everyone who interacts with our community.”

Alex Vlasov (TXRX) - “Ethereum - and blockchains, in general - unveils tremendous opportunities and one of them is building a more fair world. Protocol Guild serves several purposes: 1. It’s an instrument for public goods funding, which is often underrated 2. It’s a research and an exploration of innovative social mechanisms 3. It aims to support Ethereum Protocol contributors”

Ansgar Dietrichs (EF Research) - “I strongly believe that not enshrining a contributor funding mechanism into the base chain was the correct choice for Ethereum (crucial for its credible neutrality). But in order to keep attracting top level talent to the core dev space, we need to experiment with out-of-protocol ways of funding. Protocol Guild is a very exciting project in that regard and hopefully a first step towards a sustainable funding structure.”

Anton Nashatyrev (TXRX) - “I would really love to see Guild as an instrument for long term incentivisation of people who just want to develop Ethereum and don’t want to worry about buying food for themselves tomorrow ”

Carl Beekhuizen (EF Research) - “As researchers we spend a lot of time worrying about incentive compatibility. This guild nudges us towards a better incentive landscape for those working on the protocol.”

Core Contributor - “A huge ecosystem is building up upon the base Ethereum protocol. If we want this base layer to remain independent and maintained like a true public good, incentive alignment is a key factor. Let’s make the Protocol Guild an inspiring and successful experiment! ”

Core Contributor - “Decentralized Apps. Decentralized Ecosystem. Decentralized Funding.”

Core Contributor - “Decentralized eco-systems are hard to build, and client diversity is harder but super important for a robust social code consensus on a protocol. That requires on-par commitment, perseverance, continuous innovation, learning and contributions. And not to mention community support!”

Core Contributor - “Ethereum is public infrastructure for the world. Building infrastructure is hard, because everyone wants to enjoy it, but no one wants to be the chump left paying the bill, which often induces zero-sum thinking and protecting one’s own interests rather than contributing. Protocol Guild ensures stability for those who choose to contribute and creates an environment of positive-sum thinking, powered entirely by the Ethereum ecosystem and the value it brings to the world.”

Core Contributor - “Ethereum refers not only to the Ethereum Foundation, but to the entire community related to the Ethereum protocol. However, all economic incentives for protocol core dev now mainly rely on EF’s salary. The PG project fills this vacancy and let community incentivizes protocol devs via this approach. This is critical to keeping and attracting Ethereum protocol builders.”

Core Contributor - “I believe this experiment will result in a great precedent on how to keep the core values of the Ethereum protocol alive and relevant.”

Core Contributor - “Incentive alignment is one of the core issues that impact the long term health of a software/network. I think the Protocol Guild helps solve a part of the incentive alignment problem by allowing members to gain exposure to the network they are developing. I feel like it will go a long way in helping keep and onboard new core developers, as well as ensure everyone has skin in the game.”

Core Contributor - “It is important that we allow those that contribute to the core protocol the opportunity to be financially rewarded on a similar scale as those that choose to operate in the private sector. Without such a mechanism, the choice to work on the core protocol is also a choice to forfeit monetary rewards offered elsewhere, which in many cases, will lead to continual attrition of talent into the private sector.”

Core Contributor - “It is important to retain talent in this industry, and the Protocol Guild provides a mechanism for doing so. Decentralized public goods funding of the researchers and developers that build the underlying technology have good chances of benefiting the applications built on top, long term.”

Core Contributor - “It seems like really great way to incentivize work on core Ethereum protocols.”

Core Contributor - “It should help to bring and keep talents in the Ethereum core dev group.”

Core Contributor - “It’s great to see the incentive problem trying to be solved for existing and also new core contributors.”

Core Contributor - “It’s sad that those who develop open technologies have historically profited far less than those who build on top of open technologies. I think that the Protocol Guild is the start of something very important to Ethereum.”

Core Contributor - “Let’s make base layer r&d long term sexy!”

Core Contributor - “maybe the log4j exploit might not have happened with more funding, let’s try to make the same not happening on Ethereum.”

Core Contributor - “Motivating talent towards Ethereum development is critical to stay competitive in this dynamic industry.”

Core Contributor - “Protocol contributors enable the creation of value. Rewarding them proportionally to the value created can sustain their work and attract additional talent. Token contributions from successful projects is a great way to achieve that.”

Core Contributor - “Protocol Guild is a great way to reward Ethereum core developers for the infrastructure work that they are doing.”

Core Contributor - “Protocol Guild is a platform for the community to acknowledge and appreciate the talent and dedication that keeps Ethereum going.”

Core Contributor - “Protocol Guild with its rewards and governance system which is beyond casual wages or project grants inspires members to apply their efforts to the Ethereum development in unrehearsed ways and directions where forces of EF and big companies are missed. It preserves guarantee of strong presence of the community forces over major pathways safeguarding decentralization of the Ethereum. ”

Core Contributor - “Prysm implements the Ethereum beacon chain proof of stake protocol. The beacon chain is important because eliminating proof of work is a moral imperative. Multiple implementations of the beacon chain do and should exist for the resilience of the network. Prysm is written in go, which is a language designed to minimize the complexity of strongly typed, highly concurrent source code. This means that Prysm can be performant, have good support for safety and correctness, while also being built from source code that is easier to read and audit than other system languages. More eyes on the implementation should lead to greater understanding of how the system works and more confidence in the network.”

Core Contributor - “The Ethereum ecosystem is capable of delivering enormous value. But a huge disparity has arisen between the rewards available to those who build the Ethereum protocol and those who build on the Ethereum protocol. The whole community should be concerned about this: unless the foundations are continually maintained and improved, the entire building is at risk. Almost uniquely, our own technology gives us the tools to align all our incentives. The Protocol Guild is a creative approach to recognising and rewarding the foundation-builders - essential if we want to continue to deliver on Ethereum’s promise long into the future.”

Core Contributor - “The Ethereum Foundation, however successful beyond what might have been reasonably expected of it, still comprises a single point of failure. The protocol guild can help ensure the values the foundation has helped shepherd can sustainably adapt in a decentralized fashion consistent with Ethereum’s core principles.”

Core Contributor - “The Guild will help retain existing and attract new talented contributors to the Ethereum revolution.”

Core Contributor - “The Protocol Guild will help ensure Ethereum provides the world with the decentralized future it needs.”

Core Contributor - “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. But without the parts there is no whole. This project addresses the parts without diminishing the whole.”

Danny Ryan (EF Protocol Support) - “Public goods are hard.”

Dmitry Khovratovich (EF Research) - “We work on a number of projects: VDFs, zero knowledge protocols, validator secure selection, – which all make Ethereum 2.0 faster, secure, and simple. We are taking the best from the most advanced cryptographic schemes today, and sometimes invent new ones.”

Fredrik Svantes (EF Security) - “Funding public goods/FOSS, especially on an individual level, is hard. Protocol Guild helps make this easier for individuals from across the world to partake in the future of Ethereum without also having to be part of a larger organization. By creating this sustainable effort, the Protocol Guild is helping to further provide long term health of the protocol layer, which is crucial for the applications running on top of it, by rewarding those who help build it.”

Gabriel (EF JavaScript) - “The sustainable and community-driven funding mechanic introduced by the Protocol guild will increasingly become, I believe, a foundation ensuring the perennity of the Ethereum ecosystem. It aligns us with our central decentralization ethos while at the same time rewarding and incentivizing long-term contributions to a groundbreaking public good.”

Gary Schulte (Hyperledger Besu) - “Narrowing the incentive gap between Ethereum core-protocol work and the more lucrative application space is an important effort worth putting time and resources into. ”

Holger Drewes (EF JavaScript) - “The Protocol Guild is a great chance to align core protocol incentivization with the core values Ethereum stands for.”

Jason Carver (EF Portal) - “We should explore many approaches for supporting collaboration. It’s a valuable and hard problem to generate and maintain public goods.”

Jiri Peinlich (Hyperledger Besu) - “We should be among the first who try new ways of organizing enabled by the decentralized paradigm. This example will hopefully inspire other groups to self organize and self govern. ”

Jordan Hrycaj (Status) - “Giving as much agency to independent contributors as possible.”

Justin Florentine (Hyperledger Besu) - “Funding public goods is a hard problem, I look forward to making some mistakes along the way so others can learn from us. Someone’s gotta try!”

Kaan Uzdogan (EF Solidity) - “The misaligned incentives in FOSS are well known and already causing problems. Particularly in the Ethereum space, the financial incentives to move away from protocol building to a for-profit project are high and we can’t rely on core developers’ altruism forever. Protocol Guild is a valuable experiment both for the sustainability of Ethereum infrastructure, as well as the broader open source ecosystem. ”

Kamil Sliwak (EF Solidity) - “I appreciate the idea behind Protocol Guild not only because it attempts to incentivize the work on the core protocols (which is very much needed), but also because of how it does it. I think there’s a very real need on the side of potential funders to know that their donations are addressing a real need and are reaching the right people. The group of protocol developers is a constantly moving target so by curating membership, Protocol Guild will make it easy to contribute towards it as a whole. I think that for the donor it will be more fulfilling than having to hand-pick individual developers or projects. The space does not suffer from the lack of funds and what is needed is really just a sensible way of channeling the available resources to where they can do the most good.”

Mamy Ratsimbazafy (Status) - “So that the value created by Ethereum isn’t just captured by those who build on top but also benefits those that build the foundations. We don’t want a situation like https://xkcd.com/2347/.”

Mark Mackey (Lighthouse) - “Every core developer I’ve talked to is well aware that they can earn significantly more working in other fields or even just at the application layer. I personally couldn’t even afford to join this effort until I was able to subsidize myself. This is strange for an industry acutely aware of incentive structures. If we care about the long-term heath of the base layer, it is important we mitigate this so we can attract and retain talent.”

Michael Sproul (Lighthouse) - “I love that Protocol Guild centers individual contributors ahead of organisations, and in doing so grants autonomy to all of the people working on Ethereum’s base layer. We have an opportunity to prove the viability of an alternative funding model for public goods, which I hope will inspire many more experiments in radical economic coordination.”

Nishant Das (Prysmatic) - “The Protocol Guild helps keep core developers focused on protocol work rather than jumping to the application layer where the upside is significantly more. Having a sustainable source of funding for public goods such as protocol work is valuable. ”

Phil Ngo (Lodestar) - “Protocol developers and researchers create the base foundation for which Ethereum stands upon. The amount of responsibility bestowed upon them is not necessarily incentivized monetarily nor does value generated on Ethereum trickle down to the base layer for protocol development. The protocol guild is a valuable experiment to incentivize great minds to contribute to the long-term future of Ethereum while having their basic needs met.”

Pooja Ranjan (Ethereum Cat Herders) - “Incentivizing contributors is a great way to keep them motivated for ongoing work. Many of us started as volunteers and I am expecting more to join in the future. Protocol Guild is a well planned initiative to incentivize community contributors to the Ethereum protocol development work.”

potuz (Prysmatic) - “End user applications stand on the shoulders of core development. In a world with multiple competing personal and institutional interests, this project helps keeping those interests as far away from core Ethereum development as possible.”

Preston Van Loon (Prysmatic) - “Client software powers the Ethereum network! Crafting mechanisms to support the teams working on it long into the future is an important project.”

Proto (EF Research) - “Protocol development is critical to the security, usability and long-term viability of the ethereum network. The protocol is a public good with insufficient funding, something that can change if there is a good platform for application-layer projects to contribute to.”

Raul Jordan (Prysmatic) - “The Ethereum Foundation has a philosophy of subtraction. That is, it aims to be irrelevant over time as grassroots teams take over development, research, and community. We started working on a consensus client because of the immense potential we see in introducing new engineers to build public goods for Ethereum, just as we did. We believe being an independent team that has built a popular client helps inspire others to do the same and grow the ethos of Ethereum’s decentralized development. hopefully the Protocol Guild will also inspire more contributors to join us in maintaining the core protocol.”

Taran Singh (Prysmatic) - “I believe a future with sustainable financial system is only possible when the people behind its success are working towards a common purpose without restriction and strings attached.”

Tim Beiko (EF Protocol Support) - “Aligning the incentives of the people supporting the Ethereum protocol with the success of the applications built on top of it allows these motivated contributors to keep doing what they do best, building Ethereum, while also being rewarded with some of the value they help create. ”

Tomasz Stanzeck (Nethermind) - “Protocol Guild is a well planned and honestly designed experiment for protocol development.”

Trenton Van Epps (EF Protocol Support) - “The Protocol Guild is Ethereum itself beginning to comprehend its agency - I’m happy to be part of such an important initiative. Long-term maintenance of foundational internet infrastructure should accrue material social, cultural and financial benefits to contributors.”

Zahary Karadzhov (Status) - “This project can empower many individual contributors to start working on Ethereum without the backing of a large corporate sponsor.”